In the Mouth of Marxist Madness

In the Mouth of Marxist MadnessJ.B. Shurk – At the beginning of October, Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán denounced the European Union’s 1984-inspired manipulation of language: “Brussels is creating an Orwellian world in front of our eyes. They buy and supply weapons through the European Peace Facility.

They want to control the media through the Media Freedom Act. We didn’t fight the communists to end up in 1984!” The “Peace Facility” is responsible for transferring billions of dollars worth of artillery and ammunition to Ukraine. The “Media Freedom Act” gives European bureaucrats extraordinary powers to censor any speech or ideas they dislike. Continue reading

Why the Education War Matters

Paul Krause – Don’t let liberals shame you over the education war. They will try to present themselves as the defenders of education, all that is right and just about the misunderstood purpose of education. In reality, they are seeking to utilize education as a medium for their political propaganda. Nothing is safe. Calling them out, protecting your children, and taking a battering ram to the rotten core of education is necessary for all patriots if we are to save our country and our children.

The rot in higher education is well-known. (I say this as a graduate of Yale.) The rot emerging in primary education is not as well-known, though it is becoming more so as the days go by. This is a blessing in disguise. Continue reading

Jon Rappoport ~ The Club Of Liberals, Transhumanism, Depopulation

nomorefakenews.com | January 25 2013

By liberals, I simply mean those people who accept big government as a given, regardless of their political affiliation.

Club of RomeAnd yes, at certain key levels, they are a club. They come from major media, large corporations, banks, the military, well-funded foundations, investment houses, do-good non-profits, legal and medical societies, academic factories, think tanks, and of course the huge pool of government employees.

For them, big, bigger, and biggest government is a rock-bottom assumption that requires no thought. The sun comes up every morning, and there is big government.

This assumption supersedes anything written in the US Constitution explicitly limiting the power of central authority.

Where there is conflict between that document and the actions of government, the Constitution automatically takes a back seat. It is looked upon as a primitive, ancient, and worn-out set of ideas.

In fact, the Club is surprised and shocked that anyone would try to impede government based on fanciful notions about powers reserved for the individual states, or readings of the 2nd Amendment.

Long ago, the Club decided that every statement made in the Constitution was subject to revision or outright dismissal, based on the arrogant concept that changing times require new measures and new solutions.

In their eyes, they are working with reality, whereas Constitutionalists have a quirky and disturbing obsession that clings to absolute Principle. If Principle isn’t a sign of a mental disorder, it at least indicates an unhealthy nostalgia about a fairy tale of days gone by.

The Club blithely assumes it has won its battle.

The Club is focused on what big government, in concert with its corporate allies, can do to further expand. This is where a disjunction of attitude occurs.

For some Club members, the mission of government is to do good, to give to those in need, no matter how many are in need or how much that need grows.

For other Club members, at higher levels, the massive giveaway and fulfilling of need is just a pose, a tactic to gain more adherents who will trade a great deal of their freedom for a little security.

But there is no debate within the Club about this matter. No one wants to rock the boat. Those at higher levels view the do-gooders within their ranks as useful and amusing dupes.

The do-gooders, if they glimpse the faces and intentions of the higher-ups, shrug it off, assuming that somehow, in the long run, the vision of “a shared and just world” will triumph, because the universe wants to make it so.

The Club has one major enemy.

Abundance.

Continue reading

The Self-Destruction Of The 1 Percent

The New York Times | October 14 2012 | Thanks, Cathy

James A. Robinson
Artist Leandro Bassano  ~ 17th-century Venice, with a view of the banks of the Grand Canal and the Doge’s Palace 

OPINION ~ In the early 14th century, Venice was one of the richest cities in Europe. At the heart of its economy was the colleganza, a basic form of joint-stock company created to finance a single trade expedition. The brilliance of the colleganza was that it opened the economy to new entrants, allowing risk-taking entrepreneurs to share in the financial upside with the established businessmen who financed their merchant voyages.

Venice’s elites were the chief beneficiaries. Like all open economies, theirs was turbulent. Today, we think of social mobility as a good thing. But if you are on top, mobility also means competition. In 1315, when the Venetian city-state was at the height of its economic powers, the upper class acted to lock in its privileges, putting a formal stop to social mobility with the publication of the Libro d’Oro, or Book of Gold, an official register of the nobility. If you weren’t on it, you couldn’t join the ruling oligarchy.

The political shift, which had begun nearly two decades earlier, was so striking a change that the Venetians gave it a name: La Serrata, or the closure. It wasn’t long before the political Serrata became an economic one, too. Under the control of the oligarchs, Venice gradually cut off commercial opportunities for new entrants. Eventually, the colleganza was banned. The reigning elites were acting in their immediate self-interest, but in the longer term, La Serrata was the beginning of the end for them, and for Venetian prosperity more generally. By 1500, Venice’s population was smaller than it had been in 1330. In the 17th and 18th centuries, as the rest of Europe grew, the city continued to shrink.

Continue reading